We Think These Are the Coolest Christmas Songs

A Considered List of Some of Our Favorite Alt-Rock Holiday Jams

Last month, the Killers released a Christmas album, Don’t Waste
Your Wishes, featuring guests like Dawes, Elton John and, for some reason, Richard Dreyfuss, who
does a spoken word thing.

Pretty cool, Killers. Weird, but still pretty cool.

Then, last week, the guy from Passion Pit, Michael Angelakos, released a holiday concept video album,
Merry Christmas, Mr. Fields, which, come to think of it, kind of sounds like a movie
that would star Richard Dreyfuss.

But we digress.

The point is: it’s been a good year for alternative rock and Christmas. So we thought we’d celebrate
with 11 tracks that will make your holiday just a bit happier.

Naturally, we start with a song called “Don’t Shoot Me Santa”...

The Killers’ “Don’t Shoot Me Santa” makes our list for being the song most likely to terrify a small
child.

Here you can watch the full 44:41 minutes of Michael Angelakos’s video album, Merry Christmas, Mr.
Fields. Oh, like you were working today anyhow.

Oh, Sufjan Stevens. Your “Christmas Unicorn” is the best 12:28 minutes of music devoted to the subject
of Christmas unicorns ever.

Wham!’s “Last Christmas” is good and all, but somehow Future Islands bring the right amount of
deadpanning, which George Michael just never could.

We’re not sure this 1986 B-side instrumental “Christmas Island” is technically a holiday song, but
it’s going to be the closest Depeche Mode ever gets.

The Hives and Cyndi Lauper battle it out in “A Christmas Duel.” Not since Kirsty MacColl and the Pogues
sang “Fairytale of New York” have dysfunctional holiday families been so catchy.

For a song that started on Saturday Night Live, “I Wish It Was Christmas Today” really has
legs. To wit: this Julian Casablancas cover.

No Doubt injects their SoCal ska vibe into the holidays with their cover of the Vandals’ “Oi to the
World.”